Vietnam- A Striking Campaign of Colonialism

The French Flag

Vietnam's agriculture was their surplus crops when the French colonized them.

The southern Vietnam flag

The Northern Vietnam flag.

The Vietcong flag.

Colonization

The french came to start a new life and named their new new land mass, Vietnam. The southern side of Vietnam wanted independence from northern Vietnam. The USA helped the south, but we, along with the south, were defeated. The southern Vietnam flag was burned. There was a war between the northern Vietnam and the southern Vietnam went to war and the USA helped the south try to win back their freedom after the French had colonized them. Some of the southern Vietnamese citizens wanted to side with northern Vietnam, these rebels made their own flag and called themselves the Vietcong. There were casualties on both sides and prisoners were taken to POW camps and tortured for information. Even the soon to be upstanding runner for president John Mcain was taken prisoner, he was allowed to go free but he said "I will not leave without my friends", and he was beaten and thrown back in the jail. The Vietnamese were mean and were smart with war, they won many victories during the war they won many victories during the war. Many vietnamese citizens were put in POW camps that belonged to the USA, even the southern vietnamese were in containment because the USA were not sure if they were all Vietcong. Soon enough, China started supporting and fighting with the northern vietnamese. The USA was enormously outnumbered, and the southern vietnamese were almost done for. The captured southern vietnamese were starting to get annoyed with the containment and joined the Vietcong, but some southerners resisted the urge to join the north and the Vietcong. Soon, the USA bombed northern Vietnam, giving the USA a huge advantage against the vietnamese. China had to choose sides, the USA or the northern Vietnamese and the Vietcong? In the end, China joined Vietnam and Vietcong in their war with the americans, and the southern vietnamese. With the chinese on their side, and France and the Vietcong, the northern Vietnamese were confident that they would win the war. The USA had to act quickly, the southerners were starving and people were dying, not just from fighting, but from sickness, starvation, lack of thirst, and infected injuries that would swell(since they had no medicine). In the end, Vietnam won the war. The USA retreated back to America, and the southern Vietnam flag was burned by the Vietcong and Vietnam. Southern Vietnam ceased to exist, and France was rejoiced. The war damaged the economy of Vietnam, left many people homeless, and no money. People that were rich became poor, the surviving southern vietnamese felt like they shouldn’t have started a revolution with their own people and country. The prisoners of the USA of were still kept in prison as a reminder to the USA that if they could defeat us once, they can certainly do it again. China realized that they didn’t need Vietnam anymore and(even though they helped) deserted them to find a way to survive the cold of winter. Vietnam is now going under change, they are still strong enough to fight us.

Personal Narrative

It was in Vietnam, we were walking through the woods, the birds were singing softly. We walked on and on, my platoon and I, our guns were not loaded, we were not ready for anything if we were ambushed by the Vietnamese, we would be done for. We moved in the shadows, quiet was a success, but we were not quiet enough.

Suddenly, it was quiet, too quiet, it took us a moment to realize that the birds had stopped singing. Suddenly the birds made a warning call, a sign that the enemy was nearby. We loaded our guns, but I knew better and ducked behind a trench, and just in time, the Vietnamese shot and killed my entire platoon before I knew what was happening. I was shot up, my leg in pieces, and my eye blown out. I was captured, the only survivor of the platoon that was ambushed by the enemy.

I was thrown in prison, in the place known as North Vietnam. I was tortured, along with many other captured American and South Vietnamese(who were our allies)soldiers that were bested by the Northern Vietnamese. They were going to let John Macain out of prison because his father was a general, but he instead said “I will not leave without the good soldiers that you have captured”. And you could guess what happened next, he was beaten and thrown back in prison. I was shocked that he denied his own freedom to try to free me and all the others. The life at the prison was unimaginable, the food was lousy, no beds, and we were constantly tortured by the enemy guards. Beaten with wood slices, cut by knifes, choked to death, burned, having a lit cigarette forced against faces. And other tortures too horrible to explain.

I sat there, weak and close to giving up for good, The Vietnamese tortured me for information, but I held everything in, except for the screams that escaped from my lips every time the whip, or hand, or any other object that came down on my back or other places. My wounds were infected, my empty eye socket burned from the pain, and my good eye was going blind. Then, as one of the guards raised the cat-o-nine-tails whip to bring the blow that would surely spell my end, another prisoner jumped in front and begged for mercy, but one of the guards tied him up and started slapping him across the face with a metal pipe. The vietnamese boss of the prison came and demanded information, but the man cursed at him and spat blood straight in the boss’s face! The boss came over and thrust his lit cigarette against the man’s face, the screams were unbearable to hear. Then the boss walked out of the room and raised his hand, the guard who was torturing the man knew it was a signal, he came over, and slit the man’s throat with his knife. The man fell dead and the guard came over and said, “OK, lets see how much it’ll take to make you talk!” Then the guard screamed as an american soldier drove a machete through the guard’s chest. I was rescued along with all the other prisoners, and we left that foul prison and didn’t leave a single guard alive.

Critical thinking questions:

What did the Southern Vietnam flag look like before it was burned?

Why did we help Southern Vietnam?

Vietcong- southern vietnamese that were southern rebels.

VOCAB!